A j.6 j J .-- . - -... .4 - - -: _ · -,4- j !!J4 ) j -i - -- - J A - . - - , .- J - - - - THE NEW YORKER only does it clarify the situation but, 1 believe, also places the Vatican and yourself in a good light." When the story broke nationally and Laghi was asked by a reporter for the Religious News Service if indeed his letter was an apology, he shouted over the phone that it was simply "a clarification" Whatever it may have been, Fribourg was over for the Archbishop. There were far more immediate and impor- tant matters on which he would have to deal with Vatican officials. One of his auxiliary bishops, Leo Brust, was reaching the mandatory retirement age of seventy-five, and the Arch- bishop wanted to make sure that his replacement was a man he could work with, and not the traditionalist he knew that the Vatican wanted as a countervailing force in Milwau- kee. After two letters to the United States pro-nuncio, Archbishop Agostino Cacciavillan-the first was not an- swered to his satisfaction-Weakland elicited a guarantee that he would have veto power over the appointment. His second letter had been remarkably frank, informing the nuncio that the appoint- ment of Robert Banks to Green Bay had not sat well, and that he and other American bishops felt "that it is totally useless to present names, and find it offensive that one is expected to go through a procedure that is a charade." He noted that many of his colleagues at the N.C.C.B. meeting "had hoped that the appointments of bishops would not continue to be controlled by Car- dinal Law, Cardinal O'Connor, and Cardinal Krol; but it looks as if former procedures will still hold true." The planned pastoral letter on the state of the priesthood in the archdio- cese fel1 into place quickly after the El Salvador trip. The first twenty-two pages of the twenty-five-page document could have been written by almost any bishop in America: there was a shortage of priests, which would only get worse; priests were needed to preside over the sacraments; priests were overloaded; a growing number of parishes already had to do without pastors. But on page 23 the Archbishop broke new ground. If a congregation was without a resident priest and had no prospect of getting one in the near future, he wrote, "1 would be willing to help the community sur- face a qualified candidate for ordained priesthood-even if a married man- and, without raising false expectations or unfounded hopes for him or the community, present such a candidate to the Pastor of the Universal Church for light and guidance." This was scarcely a gentle lob into the Vatican's court. Weakland was saying that the Eucharist, not celibacy, was at the heart of the Church, and that he was ready to ordain a married man to the priesthood. Such an act was clearly in opposition to centuries of Church teach- ing and practice, and again Weakland was in newspapers across the country . With the document finished and distributed to Milwau- kee priests for their comments, Weakland went back to the business of being the leader of his archdiocese. The Little Eucharistic Lamb had taken to appearing in bright-red clothing at the eight-o'clock Mass at St. John's. After a psychologist whom the chancery consulted reported that this might presage an unpredictable mood swing, Weakland doubled the plainclothes guard around her at the Mass. On a more personal note, realizing that he would spend the rest of his ecclesiastical life in Milwau- kee, the Archbishop decided that he wanted more privacy than his apart- ment in St. John's rectory afforded. He gave approval for the renovation of an old brick building on the grounds of the archdiocesan seminary; he moved in this sprIng. And Briana Ziolkowski, from St. Philip N eri elementary school, came to dinner. She and two other winners of the Archbishop's art contest and their par- ents all sat down in the rectory dining room to a sumptuous meal of Sloppy J oes encased in flaky French pastry and a dessert of fudge brownies à la mode. Briana wore a black-and-white striped dress and glistening patent-leather shoes. The Archbishop wore a plaid Pendleton over his clerical shirt, and soon unbuttoned his top button and pushed the Roman collar to the side. After the meal, he took his guests up to his suite of rooms and played the piano for an hour: Debussy, Chopin, Rach- maninoff. Often he will pander to popular taste and entertain with a little Scott Joplin, but that evening the Arch- bishop had decided to keep the concert "at a high level, befitting my guests." -PAUL WILKES ( This is the second part of a two-part article.) 65 .1)J E NEW YOR.KER. Use our weekly ø ø ø . . . . . . . . .. ø............. . 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